


After the world had ended

by Melime



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, Hopeful Ending, Injury, M/M, Self-Sacrifice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 09:03:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17118377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melime/pseuds/Melime
Summary: A Quiet Place AU.Three years ago, Rodney left the safety of a military base, along with John, to find his sister. With creatures all around them, and no way to defend themselves, any noise could mean death.





	After the world had ended

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tarlan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/gifts).
  * Translation into Português brasileiro available: [Depois que o mundo terminou](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19869271) by [Melime GreenLeaf (Melime)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melime/pseuds/Melime%20GreenLeaf)



> Warning for temporary muteness induced by disease, and generic mentions of off screen deaths (in a general apocalypse sense).

The world had ended, and they were still there.

How was that for a twist of fate?

When the creatures first came, he was lucky enough to have been safe inside a military base, far removed from everything.

Except safe also meant thousands of miles away from his sister and her kid, and he was many things, but he was not the kind of person who could let someone he loved be in danger while he was safe.

Which was how he ended up on that deadly road trip. He just wished he hadn’t dragged John along with him.

Three years they had been on the road, but they were finally close. Three years without hearing a single human voice, and meeting less and less survivors as time went by. Maybe all of this would have been for nothing, maybe his sister was no longer in her house, maybe she wasn’t even… he couldn’t go there, couldn’t even entertain the possibility that she wasn’t alive. He had to find her.

Rodney tapped on John’s shoulder, and after John was looking at him, said, “It’s the next town over, we should rest here. If we leave at sunrise, we can get there before noon.” It was funny, how quickly they got used to just using sign language. He could barely remember how John sounded like.

John nodded, and went to find a place for them to set camp.

It never ceased to amaze Rodney how quiet John could be, moving as if barely touching the ground.

“We are going to find them, Rodney,” John said, laying down on top of the closed sleeping bag. They couldn’t even risk using the zipper.

“Thank you, for coming with me,” Rodney said, and then he laid on John’s chest so that he wouldn’t have to see an answer. He couldn’t stand for John to try to comfort him, that would only make him think more about all the things that could go wrong.

\---

Rodney was shaking when he hugged Jeanning, and he had to hold his breath to keep himself from sobbing. She was there, she was still there, and she was still alive. After everything, she was still alive.

It was John that brought them back to their senses, quietly pushing them apart. Then he let them go to say, “We have to get inside, it’s too open.”

Jeannie nodded. “Kaleb is inside with Madison, I know she would love to meet her uncle.”

“Madison is here? She’s still…” he let his hands drop. He had wanted to ask, but hadn’t found a way. All he knew was that children were bad at keeping quiet, and most of the survivors didn’t have children with them.

“Meningitis, before this all started. She lost her voice.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, because he didn’t know what else to say.

“Don’t be. She was six months old when they came, she would never have been able to be quiet. This saved her life.”

John got between them. “We have to go, now.”

\---

Everything happened too fast.

They were catching up when Madison saw something through the window, maybe a bird or something like that. She was still only three years old, after all, and this was the first time at least one of her parents wasn’t keeping a close eye on her.

Next thing they knew, the five of them were locked in the basement, the creatures surrounding the house, Kaleb bleeding, and Jeannie holding a hand over Madison’s mouth to keep her from screaming.

Three years and she learned to stay quiet, never even trying to make a noise. Three years and she didn’t know, no one knew, that her muteness was temporary, that her body healed itself in time.

“We don’t have a chance if we stay here,” John said, his hands only visible to Rodney.

“I don’t know if Kaleb can move, not fast enough anyway, and Jeannie won’t leave him,” Rodney said, also shielding his hands form view from the others.

“Someone needs to distract them, drive them away.”

Rodney nodded furiously. “No, you can’t be thinking that.”

“It’s the only way.”

“I’m not going to let you die after bringing me all this way.”

“If we do nothing, we’ll all be dead.”

“I can’t lose you.”

“If they get to the basement door, it will be too late.”

Rodney had more arguments, more things that he had to say, because he needed to convince John to stay there. He couldn’t let John die, not after everything they had been through. But he couldn’t say anything, because John pulled him into a tight hug.

John got close to his ear, a millimeter away from touching him, and whispered in a barely audible voice, harsh after the years of not being used. “I love you, Rodney.”

And then, just like that, he was gone.

John was standing by the door, and said, “Survive,” just before opening the door and… leaving. Leaving to face his death so that they could live.

No, Rodney wasn’t about to let that happen.

“What’s going on?” Jeannie asked, panicked.

“You two have to take Madison and leave, be quiet, and never come back. John is going to drive them away.”

In the distance, he could hear something hitting on the walls at regular intervals. John was still alive, there was still a chance.

“How about you?”

“I need to save him.”

Jeannie didn’t try to argue, thankfully. They didn’t have time for that. Instead she just hugged him tightly, for no more than a second. Then she helped Kaleb up, picked up Madison, and left.

Rodney knew that this was probably the last time that they would see each other, even if all of them survived, but as soon as she let go of him, he began working on a plan.

If he could get Jeannie’s radio to work, then he could activate it somewhere and run, attracting the creatures to one spot so that everyone could escape. It was risky, but it was the only choice that he had. He couldn’t let John die, he just couldn’t.

\---

Rodney flinched in pain, but resisted the urge to shut down the radio. There was a theory they were working on, before he decided to leave to search for his sister, that the creatures were most affected by high frequency noises, so he set the radio to the highest setting possible, hoping this would attract them more than what John was doing.

It was a long shot, but he had to try.

He couldn’t see any of the creatures coming, so he didn’t know if it worked, and he couldn’t hear John over the radio noise, but he knew where John was headed, so he had to go there.

He was running like he never had before, not worrying about the noise. It didn’t matter, as long as the radio stayed on, anything quieter was safe, and he had to get to John before it was too late.

What he didn’t expect was finding John crouching over one of the creatures… pulling his knife from the creature’s head.

He didn’t even process what was happening, just ran to John.

“What happened?” he asked, signing out of habit.

“I don’t know, as soon as the noise started, it began screaming in pain, and its head opened. I took a shot and stabbed it, it worked,” John answered, also signing.

“Knives don’t work on the creatures.” Neither knives, nor guns, or even the heaviest equipment that the military had to offer. They tried everything at the start, and nothing worked.

“I think it’s the noise, did you this?”

Rodney nodded. “We had a theory, back at the base, but I didn’t think it would make them vulnerable, only attract them more.”

“There are two more creatures around here, we have to find them and kill them. And if this really works, then we need to spread this information.”

“This means we have a chance, we could actually defeat them.”

There was no way of knowing how many of those creature existed in the world, but for the first time in three years, they actually had a defense against the creatures.

And maybe, just maybe, they could get their planet back.


End file.
